Arsenault rink steals five to beat Yukon, improves to 4-2 at Scotties

PENTICTON, B.C. — Mary-Anne Arsenault’s Nova Scotia rink broke open a close game by stealing five points to beat Yukon’s Chelsea Duncan 8-2 at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Wednesday.

Arsenault, who improved to 4-2, was locked in a nail-biter with the winless Yukon team and trailed 2-1 after six ends.

Arsenault took her first lead of the game with a deuce in the seventh. She added a steal of two in the eighth and three in the ninth to put the game away.

“It was really late coming, but we did get the break that we were kind of thinking we might,” she said. “Really huge win. I think that gets us through. You really don’t want any more than two losses going into the championship pool.”

The Dartmouth Curling Club team curled 76 per cent for the game led by Arsenault at 79 per cent. Lead Jennifer Crouse (78), third Christina Black (76) and second Jenn Baxter (71) round out the team.

Arsenault played Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson in a late game Wednesday evening. A win would lock up a playoff spot in Pool A.

Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones went for a Hail Mary on Wednesday morning, but her rock slid just a little too far.

Jones dropped a 9-5 decision to Northern Ontario’s Tracy Fleury for her first loss of the round-robin at the South Okanagan Events Centre. The five-time Scotties champ gave up a steal of three after missing a triple-raise attempt in the 10th end.

“I felt like we kind of let that one slip away a little bit,” Jones said. “We will have to rebound and play a little sharper tonight.”

Fleury (4-2), a native of Sudbury, Ont., said it was the type of game her team wanted to play.

“It was a really tight game,” she said. “We were a little nervous on that last shot of hers. We couldn’t really tell if the angles were there for two. It was a little scary.”

Manitoba (5-1) opened by scoring a deuce and led 4-1 after three ends. Northern Ontario took a 6-5 lead in the eighth when Fleury left her last rock near the button for a pair.

“They are such a great team and they are having a really good week here,” said Fleury, whose team has won four straight. “It’s definitely a confidence boost for us. Because we lost our first two games, we feel like our back has been against the wall.”

Manitoba third Shannon Birchard — filling in for Kaitlyn Lawes who is preparing for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang — said it was a tough game.

“We struggled reading the ice a little bit earlier,” Birchard said. “It was a little straighter today. We were just on the wrong side of that for the first half of the game and missed out on a couple rolls or overthrew a couple hits.”